And as soon as we can stop kids from running out into the street and pedestrians from crossing where a driver doesn't expect them we can really become safe. I suggest a collar that gives people shocks when they do something stupid like this. Because after all, it's always the driver's fault.

@ Mike Dunlap...Maybe so, but it's not always the driver's fault. So, they'll get tickets but all the people that jaywalk get away free. The discrimination against vehicles is blatant. I don't think any driver purposely wants to run down someone whereas a shooter purposely has to pull the trigger. You're not comparing apples to apples. It's acceptable to give drivers tickets, not so much walkers.

By stating that the primary goal is reducing biker and pedestrian injuries and deaths, the proponents of Vision Zero have effectively insulated themselves from accusations of "power grabbing" by Albany politicians and car advocates.

The advocates learned this technique the hard way: A few years ago, they failed in their attempt to toll the East River bridges.

This time, their goals are the same, but they are being more clever about their tactics and messaging.

You do realize, pragmaticguy, that DeBlasio is not simultaneously campaigning against unsafe bicycling practices. I doubt whether it is safe for a cyclist to wear noise-blocking headphones while riding, but I've seen that many times. Or for a cyclist to talk on his cell phone while riding, but .. ditto. How about tickets for the cretins blithely walking through crosswalks while texting? Or parents letting their little darlings play in the street while unsupervised? No, any pedestrian or biker death is automatically the fault of the driver and the "victim" must never be blamed. And certainly not the city's ill-advised "bump-outs" which can cause a vehicle to swerve unintentionally.

[By the way, I don't drive, never did; I walk, take public transportation, and bike.]

I don't think any driver purposely wants to run down someone whereas a shooter purposely has to pull the trigger.

Of course, but the end results are what I described. Car drivers now kill more people in this city than gunmen. And they do far more damage in other areas.

They rip up and down Crown Heights avenues in their giant machinery, greatly endangering its residents and polluting the area in numerous ways, from their noise to their dirty exhaust to the incredible amount of glass, metal, oil, and other garbage they scatter everywhere.

Bravo for De Blasio and anyone else who wants to reduce the immense amount of damage cars do to our neighborhoods.

If pedestrian and bicycle injuries and fatalities go down, the politicians and the advocates can proudly declare success. Then, they can state that they could be EVEN MORE successful if they could remove additional cars from midtown during workdays, and that tolling the East River Bridges would accomplish this. They would promise that all revenues would go to very popular things: Parks, improving subway and bus service. They would implore the public to hate Albany even more than they already do.

If ped and bike injuries don't decrease, they can make the same speech! They can't lose.

So, Mike, does that imply that EVERY death is the fault of the driver?

Also, you really do have a thing about motor vehicles. ("They rip up and down Crown Heights avenues in their giant machinery, greatly endangering its residents and polluting the area in numerous ways, from their noise to their dirty exhaust to the incredible amount of glass, metal, oil, and other garbage they scatter everywhere.")

"Giant machinery"? I'm assuming you grow all your own food and that any else that comes to your house is helicoptered to your roof.

If you find all this exhaust, etc so horrible, perhaps you should move someplace like Oregon, Idaho, or wherever. I'm sure the extremists out there would be glad to have you. NYC is obviously NOT the place for you.

Nah, I'm fine here, thanks. We have a long way to go still, but things are moving in the right direction. City leaders are now getting much more serious about the incredible amount of death and destruction car drivers cause in this city.

As a pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist, and driver in this city for eleven years, I have a cautiously optimistic view of Vision Zero.

Historically, the enforcement of moving violations against cars has been practically non-existent. If anything, the NYPD discriminates in favor of drivers. You're far more likely to get a ticket for running a red light on a bicycle than for doing the same in a car. I've been stopped four times at motorcycle-only checkpoints, and ticketed for such infractions as failing to have my visor fully down on a hot August day, but never once in a car. Speed limits are a joke, and drivers who do hit pedestrians are very rarely charged with even a traffic offense, not to mention criminal charges.

In the last month, I've witnessed some things I've never seen before. I saw a cop on the service road at Bedford and Eastern Parkway actually pursue and pull over someone who ran the light there. I've seen cops with radar guns parked on Park Ave under the BQE, hunting for speeders.

Total agreement with your post (obviously); the only thing I would change there is "cars" to "car drivers." The numerous cars that come ripping up Franklin Avenue all day, often in an especially dangerous side-by-side competition, are not piloting themselves. They are being wielded by people with a complete, neighborhood-menacing disregard for anything but themselves.

(I realize you know all this; just using the opportunity to make a point about the importance of language in this discussion. This too is an area where things are improving as media outlets and government officials are starting to be much more thoughtful about the wording of this stuff. "Accident" being used in the cases of wreckless car drivers smashing into people and property is another error being reconsidered.)

Anyway, thanks for the post and encouraging anecdotes about cops pursuing law-breaking drivers (which driving a car makes 100% of us at some point). More evidence that Bill Bratton is serious about aggressively pursuing traffic violence; something Ray Kelly was completely disinterested in attacking.

The most reckless drivers in this city are driving cop cars. They completely disregard traffic lights, stop signs, and all rules that they enforce against other drivers... Whether their sirens and flashers are on or whether it's lunchtime and they are going for pizza.

Vision Zero is about ending all traffic fatalities, not just pedestrians and cyclists. Car passengers and drivers are killed in motor vehicle collisions. A nine year old passenger was killed this weekend.

In order to control our streets we need to power to make our own laws. This is not a power grab, it's sensible that the city of millions with a density unlike any other in the state needs a different set of standards for traffic behavior. I am in favor of automated enforcement, such as speed cameras and red light cameras, though I think street redesign will be the most effective.

Vision Zero is also a change in mindset for all users of the road, that we have to take care of each other. Instead of cyclists vs pedestrians and car vs cyclists, we have to realize we all have responsibility when using the streets for our own safety and the safety of our fellow citizens.

Vision Zero is about making streets more forgiving. Everyone makes mistakes, pedestrians, drivers, everyone. Those mistakes should not have be fatal. We've had a mindset that auto crashes are "accidents". They are not. When you build wider streets for high speed, people with powerful engines will speed. An engine is designed for power. But our neighborhood streets are not an autobahn, it's the streets we live and walk on, so it's time to change the design of our streets for life at people speed, not machine speed.

The speeding crackdown seems to be everywhere. Driving out on Long Island there were more cops on the highway with cars pulled over than I ever saw. Had one client get an eight point violation for doing 80 in a 55 (dumb shit) on the LIE. Oh well, back to using the radar detector.

Police often step up speeding and DWI enforcement during the summer, and on holiday weekends.

In NYC, I not only perceive a lot of more cars stopped for moving violations, but also a lot more parking tickets being issued. The agents also seem to be using the "boot" and tow trucks to get the point across.

Atlantic Ave. in the 75th pct. must give out more tickets than any other in the city. There's usually three or four cars just waiting to pull someone over when I'm traveling there about 9:30am. It's like a mobile stop and frisk.

My favorite part is the guy riding his bike on the sidewalk while the car drivers get a lecture on the law and politeness

Yeah, car drivers and cyclists both constantly break the laws, and both groups have many jerks among them. The big difference though is that only one group kills or cripples thousands of New Yorkers every year. Not that that really matters, of course.

He may need the win but I don't know if drivers are going to be thrilled with this because even though on many streets due to traffic the speed doesn't get much above 25 it makes it sound like things will get even slower. This whole initiative could be much ado about nothing and just leave a bad taste in many peoples' mouths.

He better stick with showing fewer deaths. I don't think that the revenue increase due to speed cameras and such will prove to be a major point of success except to people like Mike Dunlap who appear to hate motorized vehicles.

He better stick with showing fewer deaths. I don't think that the revenue increase due to speed cameras and such will prove to be a major point of success except to people like Mike Dunlap who appear to hate motorized vehicles.

He better stick with showing fewer deaths. I don't think that the revenue increase due to speed cameras and such will prove to be a major point of success except to people like Mike Dunlap who appear to hate motorized vehicles.

1) I don't think anyone supporting the cameras cares about the revenue increase.

2) Not that I'd care if I were, but I'm certainly not alone in hating cars. And the realization of how much death and destruction they cause is clearly growing, thus VisionZero being something more and more politicians are supporting. Cars kill or cripple millions of people every year. I hate war, cancer, and the like for the same reason. I know... crazy. Oh well.

I don't hate cars. But I do hate there being excessive numbers of cars driving at excessive speeds in the city, and the car-driving minority's demands that the vast majority of roadway space be reserved for their usage.

Those are very different things. Cars are useful and fun— they're just not usually the right tool for urban transportation.

We really need speed cameras. Has anyone noticed the speed limit sign that displays the speed cars are actually going at Eastern a little past Washington? It's great to see all the cars ignoring the speed limit and going between 30-40. If only we had a body who had the legal authority to stop and issue monetary punishments to those exceeding the legal limit.

I've been driving in this city since 1968. It didn't take very long to discover that the only way I could get pulled over by a cop in NYC was to honk my horn at one (which I actually, stupidly, did back in my student days because two cop cars were sitting in traffic jawing with one another, completely preventing anyone else from proceeding down 113th Street).

So, sadly, until serious, continuous enforcement (whether by radio cars, motorcycle cops or speed & red light cameras) becomes a fact of life in NY, speed limit signs and traffic lights are likely to have little impact on driver behavior.

I have not owned a car since moving to NYC in 2003, but I rent cars regularly to escape the city on weekends.

The only ticket I have ever received was coming off the Throggs Neck Bridge in Queens. There is something like a 45 mph limit on the Clearview Expressway, and the layout makes it very easy for the police to hide and to pull cars over.

It is much harder for the police to hide on local streets, and -until recently- traffic enforcement was not rewarded by the chain of command.

The Patrol Borough vehicle was parked off of Nostrand and Eastern had a Vision Zero banner draped across the back. Anyone else reminded of the under new management banners fixed to the front of a failing restaurant?

I saw a guy step off of the corner on the east side of EP at this intersection and stand in what is now the merging right lane, to pick up some change he had spotted in the street. He seemed oblivious to the fact that 1) it was rush hour on EP; 2) cars still use the lane to merge once they have crossed the intersection, and 3) that he could be hit from behind as he was bent over with his butt in the air.

All of these changes simply embolden stupidity as folks compete to become a Darwin Award finalist.

Homeowner-As you are aware, a large scale campaign to decrease those deaths will be mounted when it is perceived as bringing the campaigners power.

So, um, don't hold your breath.

We may want to invent a metro card for local youth we care about: It would only allow them to travel to parties that happen west of Vanderbilt Ave, and would force the hosts to overlook any differences they may have and let them in.

"Preliminary data for fiscal year 2014 indicate the city received about $41 million in revenue from camera-generated red-light, bus-lane, and now speeding summonses, as well as $14 million in ticket revenue from traffic violations written up by police officers. The proportion of revenue generated by cameras rose from 38 percent in 1999 to 75 percent in 2014.

The budget for this fiscal year, 2015, assumes that revenues from these sources will total about $62 million.

The jump (from about $2 million to $8 million) in anticipated revenue from camera-generated speeding summonses is attributable to Albany’s recent approval of an increase of 120 in the number of speed cameras to be installed in school zones across the city. Twenty speed cameras have been in use in the city since January 2014 as part of a pilot program approved last year by the state.

The jump from $24 million in 2007 to $45 milion in 2008 in revenue from red light camera summones followed a state-authorized increase in the number of cameras installed throughout the city.

Revenue from red-light camera summonses also spiked in 2011 to $71 million as a result of a ruling that unpaid red light summonses (in addition to unpaid parking tickets) would count towards the $350 threshold for having your car towed for unpaid tickets. Many motorists were required to pay delinquent red light camera fines that year in order to reclaim their vehicles from the tow pound."

Actually red light cameras have a solid history of reducing accidents, injuries and deaths. But yes they do increase the amount of fines. But you know you break the law you face consequences so your really don't have a case to complain.

I never said I was against red light cameras. Hell, I even got a ticket from one once but I knew I was wrong and I had no qualms about paying it. I just mentioned that they generate lots of money. Not only for the entities using them but for the companies that maintain them who usually end up with nearly 50% of the revenue.

Because they don't take points off an driver's lic, red light cameras extract something akin to a sin tax.

Like taxes on alcohol and tobacco, they are imposed under the guise of discouraging consumption. However, they seem to merely tax a population that doesn't seem to mind paying for a rude, unhealthy habit.

The group is still around, but as their cause has made progress (bike lanes, citibike, etc), they have lost many of their members. The police also hate them, and effectively now make it very difficult for them to clog and block busy streets.

A far milder group (Ghost Bikes) has now taken the limelight. Unlike Time's Up, they pursue their cause (memorializing dead bikers) in a way that is designed not to annoy lots of people: http://ghostbikes.org/

Now we have a group that wants to memorialize pedestrian deaths though the rapid application of spray paint:

A few blockssouth, at 73rd Street and Broadway, where delivery trucks were idling in anunbroken chain, Anthony Henry, a driver for Fresh Direct who drives thisstretch six days a week, said he thought that the new speed limit would helpget cabdrivers under control.

“Yellow cabs come through here speeding all the time,” hesaid. “They aren’t giving old ladies enough time to cross the street — they’realways trying to make the old ladies run,” he said.

I don't think lowering speed limits does much; true results come from street redesigns... but symbolic moves in the right direction are better than nothing.

The average speed in Manhattan is about 6 mph according to the last study that was done so I don't think the slower limit will help much except on the avenue streets. Crosstown it's not going to change a thing. And as for the truck driver complaining about the cabs....well that the pot calling the kettle black because as we all know, everyone tries to make as much time up as they can. If they didn't there would be no jaywalkers either.

If deBlasio were truly serious about Vision Zero, he would act to make it illegal for pedestrians and cyclists to wear earphones and text/phone while crossing a street. Of course there are bad drivers, but there are also a hell of a lot bad cyclists and pedestrians.

I didn't realize that the average crosstown Manhattan speed is 6MPH, pragmatic. Maybe the limit should be lowered to 4 or 5 MPH to further ensure pedestrian and biker safety. LOL

If one is going to ban pedestrians from texting while crossing the street, one might as well ban pedestrians from texting while they are walking on the sidewalk!

I can see average crosstown Manhattan speed being 6 mph. I drove into Manhattan yesterday. It;s bad. I wonder whether there there should be a separate lights for pedestrian crossing and vehicle movement.

How does NYC compare to Los Angeles as far as traffic injuries/deaths go? LA is a big city that has limited public transportation options. It is worth noting that pedestrians are much better behaved in LA, and jaywalking is actually enforced (at least more than we are familiar with here in NYC).

I don't think the city is going to get weathier. I think that a small portion of the city is going to be stupidly wealthy and everyone else is just going to be trapped here, biking and walking because they can't even afford to ride on the bedbug infested subways. Vision Zero is preparing us for this future.

Just for information....one out of every 25 people (or 4%) in NYC is a millionaire so how much more wealthy can the city get? It's a paradox to the statistic that states that NYC is the unhappiest city in the U.S.

When cyclists are biking distractedly through intersections while grooving to their "music" or talking on their cell phones, they may not crash into anyone, but they can and do cause traffic accidents.

I saw a NYPD police van pulling along double parked cars this evening threatening to give tickets if they didn't move. Hopefully the 77th is beginning to take double parking seriously! They could easily issue a ton of citations if they focused on Dean and Bergen.

They gave a client of mine a double parking ticket outside my office on St. Johns and Troy. I think he was inside for about three minutes but as soon as the cop got out of the car he started writing and by that time it was too late